A World of Our Own
by The6thAnon
Summary: Akihito comes back from college with a new eagerness to discover more about the world of youmu and a backpack of tools to use in experiments. They begin with a mysterious blue vial, but as the experiments become more and more dangerous, the two uncover more than they ever wanted to know. Mirai/Akihito.
1. Chapter 1

It was summer alright—the whole package. Mirai could hear the crickets chirping as she walked home, and she pushed her bangs out of her eyes, automatically avoiding her glasses, which she pushed up her nose out of habit.

She stopped in front of the door to her tiny room and sighed. It was not an unhappy sigh. She pushed her clenched hands to her side and took a few deep breaths. It was a normal summer day in appearance, but tomorrow Akihito would return from college.

"Akkey…" She muttered his well-worn nickname and felt herself remember his laugh, his flails, his goodbye the day before he left.

"_It's a special kind of college, Kuriyama-san," _ she remembered him saying. _"Special courses for youmu! When I get back, I'll know so much more._"

"_Honestly, and here I thought you didn't care about school." Mitsuki added, smiling in spite of her efforts to appear disinterested_.

"_This isn't really school. It's…preparation." _

"Preparation." She let out the word in a whisper and unlocked her door. She settled in and started tending the solitary bonsai plant on her desk before a knock sounded at her door. "W-Who is it?" There was no reply, but Mirai thought she heard some muffled laughter. "Hello?" She approached the door, confidence straightening her steps. She opened the door a crack and it burst open. Akihito stumbled into the room and found himself an inch from Mirai.

"Kuriyama-san!" He closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his head. Mirai couldn't take her eyes off his cheeky smile…as long as he wasn't looking at her, at least. "I'm early!" A moment of silence passed between them. Mirai took a deep breath and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

"Yes, you are," she said shakily, but she didn't mind the jitters. They were comforting, exciting—Akihito was back, and that was all that mattered.

"There's so much I want to show you." He slipped a light backpack off his shoulder and set it gently on the floor. "College is so cool, Kuriyama-san."

"Mirai."

"Right, you asked me to call you that." He put a hand on her head. "Rather bold of you."

"Y-You're unpleasant!"

"There's the Mirai-san I know." She closed her fingers over the ends of her sleeves.

"So, what have you brought back? This can't be everything."

"I dumped most of my stuff at my place. This is the good stuff." He rifled through his backpack for a moment, gingerly parting the objects inside. "And this…is the best." He held up a small vial of cerulean blue liquid. "This, Kuriyama-san, is how we're going to spend our summer."


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you the _actual_ Akihito?" Mitsuki asked, regarding her friend with suspicion. The boy in question rifled through his backpack with unprecedented enthusiasm, pulling old books and strange tools from the depths of the fabric. "The Akihito _I_ know would have slept at least three more hours.

"Nope, it's the same Akkey," Hiroomi confirmed after slipping his hands into the boy's armpits. "Warm and pure as usual."

"Ack, knock it off!" Akihito jumped back, almost knocking over a fragile looking lighter in his quest to get away from his friend's curious hands. "I've just got something I can care about finally, that's all." He finished arranging his materials and leaned back with a satisfied sigh.

"Where did you get these books, anyway, senpai?" Mirai examined the plastic cover of the book suspiciously. "Hey, this looks like it came from a library! They let you borrow books over break?"

"W-Well, I got permission!" Akihito responded, a tremor in his voice.

"Hm…" Mirai narrowed her eyes at him and pushed her glasses up. He gulped and drew back slightly. "I don't believe you."

"Fine, fine! I just took them. But I'll pay back the fines!" He crawled back a bit.

"Senpai, that's wrong!"

"I'm just trying to learn!"

"Alright, you two," Mitsuki interrupted. "We all know Akihito's moral compass doesn't point straight."

"Is that _all _that isn't straight?" Hiroomi asked, his eyes solidly fixed on Akkey's.

"I have a girlfriend!" He responded indignantly, his cheeks coloring. Mirai pulled off her glasses in one swift motion and started polishing them furiously. After a moment or so of this, Akihito flipped through his (ambiguously obtained) books and left them on pages of spectra. "Alright, you guys ready?" They nodded and he launched into an explanation.

"This vial is a special substance that reveals the true nature of things. We only have a bit, so we'll mainly be using it on youmu stones, but I'd like to demonstrate with something simple." He pulled a leaf off of Mirai's sweater and held it up.

"What do you think of when you think about leaves?" The three thought for a moment.

"Life," Mirai pitched in. "E-Even if that's obvious."

"No, it works!" Akihito reassured her. "Anyone else?"

"Perseverance," Mitsuki said slowly. "Resourcefulness, too."

"I think of peaches," Hiroomi added. "Sweet, ripe peaches." There was a second of silence before the remaining three burst into laughter.

"No, that's good!" Akihito affirmed as he tried to catch his breath. "You think of something full of life. That's what I wanted to prove. And what's the color of life? Other than peach," he added quickly.

"Green," the three said in unison.

"That's right." The room was silent as they watched Akihito prepare the experiment. He set a camera on a tripod and played around with the setting until he had a timer set up. Then he placed the blade of grass on a stand, put the lighter below it, and flicked it on.

"Everyone ready?" They nodded, unwilling to interrupt the calm atmosphere. "OK." Akihito took a deep breath and shakily poured a drop of the liquid onto the specimen. The room exploded in light, mostly green and yellow, and all four of them were spellbound, their reverie interrupted only by the faint clicking of the camera. The light catapulted around the room, illuminating the corners that Akihito's cheap electrical bill couldn't reach.

"Wow," Mirai gasped. "That was…"

"Very informational," Akihito muttered, scribbling furiously in a notebook. The Nase siblings sat without moving, staring at the walls as if still seeing some color dancing against the pale gray.

"Beautiful was the word I was going for," Mirai said quietly, and Akihito looked up.

"It was pretty magnificent," he agreed. "Alright!" He clapped his hands. "After that stunning performance, I think it's time for some donations. Anyone has any youmu stones to spare?" The room exploded in yells of protest.

"Hey, I'm still poor!"

"We're college students, Akkey!" Hiroomi called back. "Have a little sympathy." This earned him a well-placed glare, and the boy fished a tiny stone from his pocket.

"Fine, fine. I'll pick up the tab this time. But I'm not asking for anything _that _expensive." Mirai opened her mouth, and he turned around to shush her. "Not you, Kuriyama-san. You have to save up for school." She nodded and looked down, and he hastily changed the subject.

"A-Anyway, we're going to try it with my topic of interest: youmu." If Akihito wore glasses, he would certainly be pushing them up his nose in eagerness. He cleaned up his station and readied the stone so it sat in the center of attention. Mirai felt a twinge of sadness for it. It looked lonely on the prepared glass, the lighter underneath it. Like it had no other purpose but to be dissected into something of academic use. Mitsuki readied a pen and nodded back at Akihito when he tilted his head.

He poured from the vial and watched the stone burst into color. Blue streamed out of the flame, curling around the legs of the desk and twisting into complex patterns in the corners of the room. The four friends couldn't decide where to keep their eyes and twisted their necks in an effort to keep up with the dance of the youmu stone's essence. Mitsuki's pen lay abandoned by her feet, the snaps of the camera the only tie to reality.

When the color faded, the group found themselves breathless. Akihito was the first to collect himself. He motioned for the others to gather around one of the open books, and he pointed to a spectrum of color on the page.

"The blue means this youmu had a relatively peaceful past. With the pictures I took, we can look into the youmu's experiences before it died." Hiroomi gasped.

"Where could you have obtained such a device?"

"If you stole that one too, I will never forgive you." Mirai added, turning up her nose at her boyfriend.

"No, no! Of course not. One of my professors gave this to me. Here, I even have a note." Hiroomi snatched it up, his hands shaking. He steadied himself quickly, but not before earning a quick look from Mitsuki.

"Is everything-?" He cut her off with a look she understood to mean he would explain later.

"Alright, looks like our Akkey is still pure enough for me," he covered. "So are we going to examine these pictures now?"

"Not now," Akihito said with a yawn. "It's the beginning of summer, and I need to sleep." Mitsuki giggled behind her hand.

"Best to leave you alone, then." The siblings cleared out. Mirai stayed, unwilling to get up and leave after so long without seeing the one she cared about most.

"Hey, you still owe me something," the boy said quietly, gently placing his hands on Mirai's shoulders.

"W-What? I do? Well it can't be money…" she touched the tips of her fingers together nervously. "…it isn't money, is it?"

"No, no! Of course not. It's something of a little more personal nature." He shifted so he was facing the girl and leaned close to her. "Only if you're OK with this sort of thing, of course." Mirai squeezed her eyes shut.

"Y-You're unpleasant!" She murmured. But it was Mirai who closed the distance between them and started the kiss.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you ready?" Akihito stepped back from the projector as it emitted a low humming noise. A light flickered, and a white square appeared on the wall. He looked back at his audience. Mirai and Mitsuki sat with their feet tucked under their skirts, and Hiroomi leaned against the back of a chair.

"Whenever you are," the other boy said. Mirai tugged on the sleeves of her sweater and nodded.

"What are you expecting, senpai?" She asked.

"I don't know exactly what to expect, but it will be peaceful. Still, could be anything." The excitement in his voice gave Mirai small shivers. "That's why I have no qualms showing it to you, Kuriyama-san."

"H-Hey, I can take it!"

"I'm sure you can," he laughed, and Mirai couldn't help but feel a little cheated at his tone. It sounded like he was shielding her! Even though _she_ had fought for so long against Kyoukai no Kanata.

"You're unpleasant," she muttered, but she kept her voice so quiet that the projector hummed right over it.

"Everyone ready?" he asked again, and Mirai could only give him a nod. "Alright." He rubbed his hands together and pressed play on the camera.

All at once, the sound of wind filled the room. Mituski gasped, and Hiroomi reached for her hand. Mirai held up a hand to test the air and realized it was only audio. She turned her attention to the screen and saw intense flashes of color. They were almost abstract, but Mirai thought she could distinguish grass from a sky—a bright sky, one filled with many clashing shapes. Harsh sounds kept rising in volume, and the group put their hands over their ears. There was a piercing scream and the room went dark.

Mirai wrapped her arms around herself, trying to still her shaking.

"Are you alright, Kuriyama-san?"

"Y-Yes! Of course I'm alright." She instantly regretted hiding her uneasiness from him. She _did _want him to think her capable of handling violence, but it would be nice to be comforted for once. Akihito was not fooled.

"That didn't sound peaceful, Akihito," Hiroomi said. Mitsuki was also a little jolted, and he hugged her before she pushed herself away.

"I'm fine, she said quietly, looking to Akihito to wrap things up.

"I'd like to do some research alone for a moment, guys," he said. The Nase siblings quickly said their goodbyes.

"Will we meet tomorrow?" Mitsuki asked. "I have something I'd like to take care of."

"Me too," her brother added. "It's urgent. It would be best if—"

"Yeah, sure, we can meet the day after tomorrow," he answered, a bit impatient. He moved to the door, intending to see them out. Mirai smiled. He was all but pushing out his friends in his concern for her. It was…sweet, but still a bit—

"Senpai, you were being unpleasant just there," she jabbed, hiding her smile behind her sleeve.

"Honestly, Mirai, can't you stop using that word? I was just trying to make sure you—oh. You're laughing." He sighed. "I really was worried about you, you know."

"Y-You were?"

"Of course! My top bespectacled beauty looked uncomfortable! That is not the way to show off the look of glasses." Mirai couldn't help but laugh. He held his opinion in such high-esteem when it came to glasses!

"And is that the only reason you were worried about me?" She looked at him over the top of her glasses, and Akihito swallowed. She had grown up from the first year he once knew, more inclined to tease and certainly more comfortable around him.

"You know it isn't." He put a hand on her head and stroked her hair for a minute. She closed her eyes, and her breathing steadied. She snuggled into his arm, and he put his head against hers. "Hey, Mirai?" The room was still dark, and the sun was beginning to sink.

"Yes?" She said sleepily.

"How would you like to stay the night?" Mirai opened her eyes. He had asked before, and she had never taken him up on his offer. But he was finally back after being away so long…

"OK," she muttered, settling back into the crook in his arm. "But only if we can stay like this for a while." He chuckled and kissed the top of her head.

"Of course."


End file.
